Chapter 12 Sand Trail
Hello everyone, sorry if I didn't put this out sooner, but this month is a kind of my vacation and I will get some chapters out on Sunday or every other Sunday. Hop you like this chapter and have a happy Valentines day!
"Ok," Making sure both of his web shooters were placed securely on top of his costume while keeping the firing button under his gloves, Spider-Man walked to the edge of the school and stared at Sandman's last location. "Time to play in the sand."
Shooting an organic web to a high building across his school, Spider-Man jumped off and used his momentum to swing from building to building while looking down to the people below, making sure nothing bad happens before he reaches the docks to begin his search for Sandman.
While our young hero starts his search for Flint he passed people going about their daily work. Two in particular, a blonde monkey Faunus talking to his friend with bright blue undercut hair wearing a red jacket, were walking on the side walk talking about their first day at Beacon.
"Well, how'd ya like it? Told you they were pretty cool!" Sun spoke next to his partner, Neptune Vasilias, about meeting Blake and her friends.
"Yeah, I admit, they're cool. Especially that white haired girl." Neptune said while passing a hand through his hair. "She was totally into me."
"S-sure, man." Sun took a moment to remember how his friend tried to flirt with Ruby's partner at the library. But instead of his usual charm he put with any girl that caught his interest, Weiss seemed repulsed at his vain attempt at trying to complement her. Sun was kinda glad that he didn't have to run interference in case she might see Neptune do the same trick with another girl later.
"I mean, the way she looked when I told her she was a snow angel. I'm pretty sure she's totally falling for me."
'And you'll be falling in your grave if you decide to try to do the same with her team. I'm sure if you decided to go after Ruby her older sister won't leave anything of you to be remembered.'
"But enough about me, dude. How was your advances with Blake?" The goggle wearing boy asked. "You told me so many times about her I thought when I meet her she was already dating you. She didn't look away from her Scroll the entire time I was there making my moves on that cute pony tail chick."
'More like annoying her.'
The leader of Neptune's team wanted to say that out loud, but kept his mouth shut. After all, he had to give his friend credit for even trying. Unlike himself and his failings to catch Blake's attention. He thought that after the fight at the docks Blake would be better at being more social since her secret was known to the rest of her team, but it just made her more antisocial and less talkative. Even less talkative before the docks. All she did was stick to her Scroll whenever she got a message or call, then sleep.
"She was just busy with something." Sun tried to explain why she wasn't interactive with him when he tried to talk to her.
"Blake seems like she needs sleep. I practically saw the bags under her eyes from across the table." Neptune looked away from his friend and checked out two Mid Town high school girls wearing matching Spider-Man T-shirts. Just when they were about to pass them, the blue haired boy gave the girls a wink making the regular High school girls blush and giggle.
'I love training to be a Huntsmen.'
Though he may be training to be someone that fights dangerous Grimm and keeps the kingdom and her people safe. Neptune couldn't help but always flaunt his status whenever he could when it came to the opposite sex. Everyone knew that if you saw someone who looked like they came from a fashion magazine a good chance was that they'd be a Huntsmen. Mostly the ones who are training to become one. In the past Huntsmen were more conservative with how they acted when they went out, but it seems that the newer generations of Huntsmen appear more like a fashion statement then a boring profession.
Civilians just knew what a Huntsmen looked like due to their physique and how colorful they dressed out in the public. Another way they knew was that Huntsmen always carried a weapon on their body at all time, even the students in training. With so many positives in being a Huntsmen Neptune couldn't help but be gun ho in dreaming to become one.
Not to mention the bonus of being a Huntsmen-In-Training gave him the confidence to use that status to gain a small fan base of girls who adore him. In fact, his entire team had their own little fan group that dedicated themselves like fan girls to boy bands.
From the way they look, dress, and acted gave team SSSN a good reputation back at their school. Now they're here with only half of the team at Beacon and already they're starting to get a reputation. Neptune thought that this place would be another claim under their belts with all the regular girls falling for them, but the rate of followers was a fraction of how many they had back at Haven academy. The reason was the so called 'Superhero' popping up in every news, talk shows, and even some on their own fan site.
"You think she's one of those 'Spider Fans'?" The human teen asked.
"What?" Sun lifted his eyebrow in confusion.
"You know, Spider Fan. I keep seeing people online showing how they love Spider-Man. Maybe she has her eyes on the web head."
"That can't be right." The monkey Faunus denied. "I fought alongside him. He's cool and he seems pretty down to Remnant."
"Yeah. You told me. Like seventeen times!" After the crime at the docks, Sun started to talk about how he fought alongside the hero in stopping the White Fang and Roman from stealing Dust whenever he had the chance. He even became an instant celebrity the next day to the citizens of Vale with some people going right up to him and asking how he was able to meet the web head.
"I think she's just doing some personal things." Sun gave his friend a stern look. "And if she's a Spider Fan then so am I! The guy was awesome! I saw him do some sick tricks when fighting. You should've seen him! He was like 'POW!' 'WHAM!' 'BOOM!' It was so cool."
The possess the Faunus did while telling his friend how Spider-Man fought caused several unwanted stares to come their way. Not liking the weird looks people were giving them, Neptune waved his hands to stop his leader when his saw a fast-moving object over shadow him from above.
"Huh?" Looking to see what that was, the red jacket boy was able to see the signature red and blue colored hero swing past them and left his field of vision when he turned right down another street.
"Dude." Uttered a single word left from Neptune's lips.
"Hiyaa!" The monkey Faunus made another weird pose, completely oblivious to the fact that his best friend just saw Spider-Man swing over their heads.
Slapping the back side of Sun's head, Neptune made his friend look at the direction he saw Spider-Man was last seen just a couple of seconds ago. "Dude! I just saw the guy do the web thing!"
"What thing, Neptune?" Sun rubbed the area where Neptune hit him. "Make some sense man."
"Spider-Man!" Random bystanders nearby looked to the two Huntsman in interest.
"SPIDER-MAN!" Sun's screaming attracted the attention of people across the street. "Where?"
"I saw him swing that way!" Neptune pointed at the street the web slinger turned. "Where do you think he went?"
"Duh!" The team leader smacked his forehead. "The docks! He must've wanted to investigate that sand dudes attack this morning! Let's go!"
Neptune hesitated at the idea of trying to spy on the masked hero. Add in the possibility of the cops stopping them for suspicious activity and his anxiety was through the roof.
"I'm not sure, Sun. What if we get in trouble. The guy's Spider-Man, I'm sure he can handle himself." Neptune tried to reason with his partner.
"Don't worry about them, Neptune." Sun placed his arm around Neptune's shoulders. "We're Huntsman."
"Huntsman-In-Training." He corrected him.
"Same thing. We're supposed to do things like this. Besides, the police didn't arrest us last time I was at the docks.
"You were a stowaway!"
"We'll just get a slap on the wrist and let the academy worry about it." Not wasting any more time, Sun pushed his partner in the direction of where the hero was going. "Let's go! Maybe if we find something useful we could do a team up with Spider-Man!"
"You sound way too motivated for this!"
"That's because we're going to do a superhero team up, Neptune. I thought a nerd like you would be in to this!"
"Intellectual!" As soon as the two ran to the docks, the people who heard the commotion started to go in a media frenzy when they heard that their local hero was there.
"Did they say they saw Spider-Man?"
"I gotta message this to my sis! She works across from the docks!"
"Finally! Maybe now we don't have to worry now that Spider-Man's here!"
"If Atlas and Huntsmen couldn't stop Sandman, then Spider-Man's our only hope!"
"Those two Huntsmen said that Spidey was going to the docks. Let's go check it out!"
People began heading to the docks, some even using their Scrolls to message their friends and family to be at the docks to watch the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man in action. One man wearing a simple tweed suit and glasses was smart enough to grab his Scroll from his pocket and dialed a number to tell his boss the important news.
"J.J! You're not going to believe this!"
Last time Spider-Man was at the docks was when he had to help Blake stop the White Fang from doing something that they'd never return from. He was able to help them, but it still ended in a big gun fight with Roman escaping and Mr. Pesto's nephew dead. The memory of his dying words was still fresh in his mind, but Spider-Man had to force the image in the back of his mind and focused on the current situation.
The damage from the White Fang attack had left the docks in a complete mess, taking over a month to finish the clean-up. The attack this morning from Sandman made the assault from the White Fang look like a day at the beach compared to what he did.
What was once an organized establishment was now a complete wreck, like a category 2 hurricane swept the entire docks. Spider-Man can see how extensive the disaster was with thrown shipping cargos all over the place and knocked over cargo cranes. The large imprints of feet confirmed that Sandman did more the just steal Dust.
'This much chaos. The first time I met him he completely overpowered me. But after seeing this I think he was just toying with me instead of taking me seriously.'
"Don't chicken out now, Spidey." He shook his head to get over the negative thoughts swirling over him. "You're here now, you gotta figure out where Sandman is. A big guy like him had to have been sloppy enough to leave some clue around here."
Jumping off the docks warehouse the hero made his way over to a nearby shipping crate. Spider-Man landed on the side of the large container and wall crawled downward to start his search on foot. A man like Flint made the docks a maze with how unorganized the area was, but what made it even weirder for the wall crawler was despite how much destruction there was he couldn't find a trace of sand anywhere. Searching for what seemed to be forever the hero jumped on one of Hammer's cargo crate and looked around the crime scene in a complete stump.
"This is just weird. Subtlety isn't Flint's strong suit, it should be impossible to lose sight of a literal sand giant." The only thing that could explain this would be... "Oh. Duh! That green haired girl!" Spider-Man snapped his fingers when he remembered the girl from the bookstore. "Oh no, not her."
It was now obvious that it was her Semblance that allowed Sandman to escape by using illusions. When he was able to grab enough Dust, chances were that he needed some help trying to leave with so much heat on his heels. The best bet was she was hidden away somewhere and used a decoy, so everyone would fight an illusion giving Flint enough time to transfer the Dust somewhere else and disappear in a clean getaway.
'Now I need to worry if I have to fight Flint along with Greenie. Best bet the guy who does the kicking will be with them too.'
"This was a waste of time." Spider-Man let out a frustrated sigh. "He's probably somewhere else stealing more Dust. I knew I shoulda- Huh?"
'Spider sense is going off. But there's no danger anywhere? now my spider powers are going out of control too?'
The hooded hero looked for any trace of danger, but when he looked towards Oscorp's lot his spider sense started to get worse. "Whatever my spider sense is picking up is probably the closest thing to a clue I have." Jumping from crate to crate the spider hero stopped when his spider sense started to flair even more. "Might as well follow whatever I'm picking up."
Like playing a game of hot and cold the closer he got the more intense the spider sense became. Spider-Man thought that if this kept going his skull would split in two from the pressure, but when he thought the worst was over it soon became easier when he saw what his spider sense was picking up.
"A helmet?" Spider-Man picked up the reason for his discomfort. "It looks like it has been damaged, but why is it making my senses go haywire?"
Looking over the helmet he spotted a small built in head set inside with a small dial attached. Turning the knob to the max, the blonde spider instantly dropped it and fell to his knees from terrible pain.
'AAAAAHHHHH! GOT TO TURN IT OFF!'
"GAH!" Shooting a small web to the helmet he tugged it closer to him and turned the knob down, allowing his spider sense to finally stop pounding in his head. "Geez!" Ripping the small radio from the helmet, Spider-Man was about to break it into pieces but stopped after an idea came to mind.
'I didn't know my spider sense could pick up radio frequency, maybe I could use this somehow.'
His idea of using the item had to be set aside however, as he was too busy looking over the device he noticed something that made his search finally bear fruit. Flipping the military gear right side up a small amount of sand poured out, creating a small mound at his feet.
"Well, this just proves that Flint was here." He deadpanned. "They were probably having the same reaction I get when I first fought him." Just when he thought that it was normal sand the small mound started to move, causing the spider to take a step back from surprise. "Whoa!" He flailed his arms in a panicked manner. "What the heck! You're still moving?!"
The sand didn't talk, but mindlessly shifted itself away from the hero to join the rest of it's being. Seeing that this was the clue he needed, Spider-Man fired a web to stop the sand, but also made sure it was able to stop Sandman from moving.
FWIP!
His aim was true, and a thin thread of web fluid mixed itself to the sand. Unfortunately, it didn't seem to be working but as the sand moved away it became slower and slower. Ice started to emerge out of the sand, bringing it to a dead halt.
"It works!" Spidey raised his arms in the air in victory. "I'm awesome!"
Walking over to grab the incased ice, he raised it to his face and examined the trapped sand for anything that could lead him to Flint. Pointing it at the direction leading to the city the trapped sand started to shake within the ice, giving Spider-Man the perfect compass to lead him to Sandman.
"At least I know where he is, but I'm worried what he's doing now. Got to catch up to him so he won't cause any more da-" Spider-Man's monologue was stopped when his spider sense flared up again. Not knowing what to expect he prepared for anything..
'Spider sense! The COMM link is off, so that means actual trouble! And it's telling me that they're right behind me.'
Trusting his instinct on the matter, the blonde hero turned around and shot two web lines at the targets and pulled the lines to reveal who the assailants were.
"Oof!"
"Aah!"
What Spider-Man thought would be Roman's thugs, or the White Fang trying to ambush him, he was instead greeted by the same Monkey Faunus he encountered with Blake at the diner and a new guy with bright blue hair.
'I know the shirtless guy is Sun, but who's the guy with the goggles?'
"H-hey spider dude." Sun said nervously as his back was on the cold cement floor and staring up at Spider-Man's white compound eyes.
"Sun? What are yo-" The hero placed a fist near his mouth and cleared his throat. "What are you doing here?" He asked the two new arrivals in a deep voice.
"He actually knows your name." The blue haired boy said in astonishment. "Here I thought you just made it up that you actually talked to him."
"Told you, dude." Sun got back on his feet and helped his friend. "Me and Spidey are best friends now after the fight with the White Fang."
'I only say you once as Jaune and had no conversation with you as Spider-Man. How did I become your friend? And even then you were mostly paying attention to Blake the entire time.'
"You didn't answer my question." Spider-Man spoke again in a deep voice. "Why are you here?"
"U-uh we just wanted to see what you were planning to do to find that sand guy." Neptune explained, surprised that someone who looked around their height had such a deep and menacing voice. "We saw you web swinging here and decided to follow you."
'Of course, they spotted me during broad day light. And if they saw me then that means more people will know I'm here too.'
With what he came for now in his possession, the hero made a make shift sling using his webbing to wrap around the imprisoned sand. He then placed it over his shoulder and tried to web swing back to the city but stopped to look at the two Huntsmen still standing there.
"Go home."
"What?!" The two Huntsmen-In-Training said at the same time.
"We can help!" The monkey Huntsman reasoned. "I fought at the docks too, so you know I can handle myself. Me and my friend are Huntsman for crying out loud, this is something we do."
"You might need our help. After all, wherever you might go the bad guys might set a trap for you." The boy with goggles added his own reason to join the hero.
"Ok first off." Spider-Man looked directly at Sun. "You guys are not Huntsman, you two are students so you shouldn't even be here."
'Of course, I don't know if that's allowed or not since I'm not a student at Beacon, but I'm sure that these two are at least trespassing. Then again, I'm also trespassing but the people of Vale at least know why I'm doing this.'
"And secondly." He turned his gaze at the boy with bright blue hair. "I'm sorry, but do I even know you?"
"I'm Neptune." He grumbled under his breath, sad that his team leader didn't tell Spider-Man his name.
"Sure. And the second reason is who I'm tracking down." He lifted the still frozen ice statue. "It's someone you don't want to fight. If you guys watched the news then you should know that he sent a lot of professional Huntsmen to the hospital. So, if you think that since you have Aura and a Semblance you might think you're untouchable, but you're not. The guy's dangerous and you two aren't ready to fight him."
'I know this because I couldn't beat him. They may be training to fight Grimm, but Flint is far more dangerous.'
"Now, you guys need to go back an-" For the second time Spider-Man sensed another presence nearby and automatically turned to face the danger.
"Um, Spider-Man." Neptune asked out of curiosity. "What are you doing?"
'This feeling is way worse than when I sensed Sun and his friend. Oh no, it's already starting!'
"Get down!" Pushing the two teens to the ground in time a small tranq zoomed passed them, missing its target and puncturing solid cement. With the danger still present, Spider-Man sprung back on his feet and looked at the direction from where the tranq was fired.
"Now!" Shouted an Atlas shoulder standing on top of a high stack of Oscorp property.
As commanded half-a-dozen Atlas soldiers started coming out of the shadows and quickly surrounding them, their weapons trained and rifles pointing at the main target.
"Spider-Man!" The first solider who fired shouted. "You are under arrest! Come quietly with your hands up."
"ME!?" The hero shouted while several red dots were hovering around his face. Some of which were making his eyes blur due to being aimed at his mask's compound lenses. "What about them?" Spider-Man pointed his finger to the two Huntsmen who looked at the hero like he sold them out. "What? Now you guys don't want to help me?"
"Enough talking!" The fire team leader screamed. "Surrender now and we won't use severe force. Your side kicks will be detained for further questions."
"Sidekicks!?" Neptune sounded offended. "Hold on, we are not his si-" He was about to say more but stopped when some of the red dots shifted to him. "Ok, ok! We're his sidekicks!"
Not wanting to have them in any more danger, Spider-Man stepped in front of the two teens, so all the weapons were aimed at him again. "Why are you doing this?" He asked. "Shouldn't you guys be more worried about Sandman? He's still at large and you're wasting your effort on me?"
"We are aware of what threat Sandman possess. But our orders are to capture you and take you in, so we may ask you questions after we arrive in Atlas."
'Atlas!? I may be wearing a hoodie, but that doesn't mean my costume will keep me from freezing.'
"Take me in? Like to the police?" Spider-Man's eyes widened under his mask. "Does Vale police know you're doing this? I thought the Council placed the honor to them for my arrest, not you guys."
'Now that I think about it. There's not enough people to try and arrest me like at the docks. Are these soldiers here from Atlas? Does the Council know?'
"Enough questions!" The leader raised his arms, signaling his men to get ready to capture him. "Be sure to shoot if he moves."
'Looks like I'll have get ready to escape. But how am I going to help Sun and his friend too? Come on, Jaune! Think of something to get out of this mess!'
"This is a final warning to stand do-" Before he could finish the Atlas operative was caught in a lasso and forcefully pulled away from the group. The remaining soldiers were surprised to see that their leader was taken out by an unknown threat.
For five long seconds the entire area was quiet. Not a single person moved a muscle as they waited for the taken Atlas operative to respond. That silence was shattered when they heard their fire team leader start to shout in pain, causing the rest to wonder if they should find him or stay on target to take Spider-Man.
'Ok, something tells me danger's here. And I didn't need to have my spider sense tell me.'
"AAAHH!" They didn't have to choose as their leader was thrown back in the circle, landing at Spider-Man's feet. His arms and legs were tied together behind his back, his helmet removed showing a massive swollen eye, and knocked unconscious leaving the group to wonder who did this to him.
"Well this is a surprise." A man wearing a cowboy hat said while walking from his hiding spot, casually swinging his lasso around. "Thought you guys would be back at your kingdom, cutting your losses like ya'll usually do. But here you are in one place, like fish in the barrel. NOW!"
That one word seemed to trigger their military training causing them to snap in to action. When they heard the man speak the riflemen aimed their weapons away from the hero and onto the new intruder. Just when they were about to shout at him to surrender the squad as ambushed from the rear by another assailant. With all weapons pointed at one target it was easy enough for the attacker to take them by surprise.
"To slow!" The small statured brawler said as he overwhelmed three armed men with his quick footing and powerful leg strikes.
The remaining men tried to help their brothers in arms, but were stopped when another man, twice the size of any full-grown man, lifted an Atlas soldier high in the air and threw him with enough force to knock the rest of the Atlas soldiers as if they were bowling pins.
'Woah... those guys took them down without breaking a sweat. Who the heck are these guys?'
While both the small guy wearing a suit and big silent man were busy doing their jobs attacking anyone who entered their employer's lot, their leader stopped twirling his rope and stared at the silent hero still frozen in place.
"Spider-Man?" The cowboy looked at the hero from top to bottom. "Thought you looked more... spidery from all the tales I heard from you. Fancy Dan! Ox!"
Calling out their names, the two stopped their small rampage on the beaten Atlas personnel and walked back to their leader. With the two skilled fighters behind their leader's back, the lariat user crossed his arms in front of his chest and spoke again to the hero.
"As you can see, Spider-Man. Me and my associates here were just doing our job by protecting this here lot owned by Mr. Osborn." The cowboy took his hat off and placed it over his chest, "The name's Montana and you already know who my friends are."
'Pretty sure the guys you beaten up also know you are guys are too.'
"What the! Why did you guys do that!?" Sun finally snapped out of his stupor and glared at them.
"Sun!" Neptune gritted his teeth and whispered to his friend. "Stop talking to the people who just tore through special Atlas operatives like they were nothing."
"Ha, ha, ha, ha!" The Monkey Faunus got angrier at their complete dismissal of him. "Boy, you of all should know the answer." Montana pointed at the groaning solider. "We're defending Osborn's lot and the fellows, plus you three, are trespassing. We're just doing our job. Like you and your blue haired friend will when you get older."
"That doesn't give you the right to do this kind of thing." Sun argued.
"Enough!" Spider-Man turned back at Sun and Neptune. "We're not here to argue. Just trying to find Sandman."
The hero hoped reason could give them a good excuse to get out of here and not waste his time fighting. As much as he didn't want too, the soldier gave the hero warning signals after hearing what they were planning to do when he was captured.
'If these people are taking me to Atlas, then they're probably doing this without the Council's say so. So many problems in one day is too much for me. I have to focus on taking down Sandman. Lesser of the two evils and all that jazz'
"Sorry, bug, but we ain't letting you leave." Montana nodded to the side giving the silent order for his team to surround Spider-Man and his two tag along. "We're hired to fight anyone who's in Osborn's lot. And since you're here, that means we have the right to protect this here property."
"This is not what I thought would happen when I joined in on a Superhero's adventure." The blue haired Huntsman pulled out his rifle and took a ready position aimed at the biggest target in front of him.
"I wouldn't have it any other way!" Sun flipped his nun chucks to get himself ready in case his short statured opponent tried any funny business.
As the four squared off to fight each other, the only people who didn't were still standing in place with so sign of moving a single finger.
"You not planning to fight?" The cowboy sounded disappointed.
"Just curious." Spider-Man replied. "You said that we're in Osborn's property right?"
"Yeah so." Montana said in confusion. "What are you trying to pull?"
"It's really simple." The young spider shrugged his shoulders. "These two!"
TWIP! TWIP!
Without warning, the spider hero shot two strands of webbing at Sun and Neptune's back while they weren't looking and flung them in the air.
"Woah!"
"Waah!"
As the two teens were flung away from harm, Spider-Man leapt into the air and landed on a high stack of Osborn's container. Looking down at the three men, Spider-Man gave his final good bye.
"Sorry, but right now I got bigger things to worry about. Our little showdown will have to wait." Giving them a wave goodbye, Spider-Man back flipped off to join the two students he'd violently thrown over, leaving the Enforcers all alone.
"Hey! Get back here, freak!" Fancy Dan was about to give chase when he was stopped by Montana. "What the? Why are we letting them go?"
"Because Osborn didn't pay us enough to go bug hunting." The leader of the group looked back at their first victims. "Besides, these here soldier boys seem more in line to catch Spider-Man then deal with Dust like the other Atlas goons this morning."
"Meaning?" Ox asked in his usual monotone voice.
"Meaning this is over our pay grade. Whatever the bug is dealing with we don't want to be caught in it without getting paid more." Taking his hand off Dan, Montana reached for his Scroll to contact someone.
"What are we gonna do now?" Fancy Dan asked while looking at Spider-Man's previous location.
"We do our job and stay put. So long as no trespassers come by we're in the clear." Hearing the dial tone on his Scroll, Montana looked back at his team and smirked.
"And Spider-Man?" Ox asked this time as he dragged the knocked-out Atlas personnel away from their employer's property.
"Spider-Man will have to deal with that problem on his own." Finally hearing a voice on the other end, the lasso user gave his team a silent order to deal with clean up while he talked to the person who hired him. "Mr. Osborn, this is Montana. Looks like you might have some loose webs getting stuck in your hair. Good news for you, the Enforcers can be your exterminators."
"Oww~ That hurt my everything bone." Neptune groaned as he picked himself off the hard floor and whipped away any unwanted dust off his clothes.
"Yeah." Sun agreed with his partner before stretching. "Glad we had Aura or else we'd be in a lot more pain."
And Sun would've been right. When he looked back at where he originally was he could see that Spider-Man threw them so far that they were in the SDC's lot. With the distance spanning over a football field, Sun could only be thankful that his Aura was strong enough to withstand the force and wonder how strong Spider-Man was to throw them that far.
Just as the two were wondering what happened to the hero, Spider-Man finally showed up, jumping from crate to crate before landing next to Neptune, causing the boy to step back at how quickly he caught up to them.
"Are you guys ok?" Spider-Man asked.
"We're fine, but why did you pull us away from them? We could handle them no problem." Sun wondered why Spider-Man would make them run away and look like cowards.
"You wanted to fight soldiers who were following orders?" Spider-Man asked him like Sun lost his mind.
"They were trying to arrest you! We had to defend ourselves!"
"So, you planned to fight not just soldiers, but Atlas soldiers? You don't understand the magnitude of the problem. That'd cause a complete strain to Atlas and Vale." The hero poked holes in every argument the young Huntsman was throwing at him.
"What about those Enforcer dudes? They attacked those soldiers too."
"You heard what Montana said. He was hired to secure Osborn property. The Atlas soldiers, plus the three of us, were trespassing."
Sun tried to make another argument before saying something without thinking. "We're trained Huntsmen. We could've handled the situation ourselves."
"That's exactly the point!" Taking a step forward, Spider-Man was now up close to Sun making the blonde monkey no choice but to look directly into Spider-Man's compound eyes. "I was there to get a lead on where to find Sandman, not to start a fight with people that isn't related to my main problem. If we had done it your way it could've been worse."
To show what he meant, Spider-Man lifted the still frozen sand sculpture close to Sun's face. "I was here for this. And now that I have it, you two need to go back to Beacon."
"What! Why?" Neptune voiced his disagreement. "We can help you. Sun has some friends from Beacon. Maybe we can call for ba-"
"NO!" Spider-Man no longer looked at Sun and focused his gaze on to the goggle wearing Huntsman. "You're out of your mind if I want you to get more people in harm's way."
'I don't want Ruby or any one on her team to face that mad man. Even if they're skilled in their own right that doesn't mean they're prepared to face someone like Sandman.'
"This days already dragged on long enough with you guys hanging around." As if also voicing its own thought, the sand piece started to shake even more violently, causing Spider-Man to go on high alert at the situation before him.
'Sandman!? He must be close enough to make the sand fragment go nuts! I have to find him now or else he'll get away!'
"If you want to really help, then go to Beacon and call for fully trained Huntsmen. They'll handle the rest."
"But-"
"I'm serious, this is too dangerous for kids like you."
'Hi pot! I'm kettle, have we met!?'
"Spider-Man, you nee-"
"No, I need you two to hurry and go to Beacon. I can handle the rest by myself. No one else knows where I am so I'd like it for it to remain like that."
"Dude!" Sun quit talking to Spider-Man and pushed him to the direction he was trying to show him. "That's already out the window. Look over there!"
Following Sun's finger, the hero squinted to get a better view at what the boy was trying so show him.
'What am I seei- Ohhh Nooooo~'
Near the entrance to the docks, Spider-Man could see a mass of bodies, all of them holding Scrolls, cameras, and even a few news vans trying to get a better shot at trying to spot him before anyone else can. Something that seemed strange was the all of them were holding signs with his symbol on it while more were wearing his colors to show why they were here in the first place.
'So many people. Why are there so many here?'
"How? How did they know I was going to be here?" Spider-Man asked himself. "I made sure to not be seen, kept to high ground, and yet why are there so many people already here?"
When there was no response to his question, Spider-Man stopped himself from asking any more questions and looked at the two guilty suspects.
"Yeah. About that." Neptune blushed from embarrassment and scratched his cheek. "You're gonna laugh at how they found out about this."
And there you have it! A big start to a big fight that will be coming soon. I know I said Sandman will be in this chapter and I was half telling a truth. I know It doesn't make sense that a part of Sandman was captured, but I thought I would try something related to Flint so Jaune can see if his new web shooter was effective against him. Sun and Neptune was also in this chapter and the reason I used them is because they don't have much development in Volume 2. I also wanted to point out how some things don't involve fighting like some Huntsmen do. I know it also makes Jaune look bad, but he is more worried about Sandman doing something much worse then picking a fight with the Enforcers.
I even wanted to show hoe much fame Jaune had acquired making it both a gift and a burden to be well known. He now has to make sure that innocent people won't get hurt just because they want to take a picture of Spider-Man doing something amazing. Another comment I get was the web shooters, Jaune is just getting the hang of them and it is still early in development. He can change and modify them to his liking or when the situation gets worse. He does work at a dust shop that supplies weapon parts to Huntsmen, so he doesn't have to worry about tuning out.
Shout out to my Beta Reader: Maestro Of Madness! Check out his work when you are finished reading mine. For the next chapter Spider-Man's problems will now have to track Sandman and also try and keep himself far away from his fans just so they won't be harmed in the fighting.
Like always, be sure to like, fav, and follow this story. Pretty sure I didn't answer some of your questions, so the next chapter I'll be sure to answer to the best of my abilities. Thank you.
Before I forget, me and Maestro Of Madness was thinking of making an Omake after each chapter showing Spider-Man's daily good deeds and how it made him even more well known in the Kingdom. Leave a comment on what you guys think of if it should be added to the end of each chapter. Thank you.